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Ichabod!

04 December 2004 19:41

ahhhhhh.

ive been sitting here trying to think of how to express everything ive been feeling and thinking lately.

i was strangely disturbed by zodda's announcement of the new tv he was getting. thats a lot of money to someone who feels like an avocado is an extravagant purchase out here. its like a completely different set of priorities that simply dont exist to me any longer.

a few of the things that used to be thoughtless purchases that are now specialty items:
a latte or a mocha
snack food or candy
frozen buffalo wings or frozen pizza
ice cream
magazines
romaine lettuce, or fruit and vegetables in general cause its so expensive in such a remote area.
parmesan cheese
limeade
brand name brownie mix
flavored coffee creamer
cereal in a box instead of the malt-o-meal stuff that comes in a bag.
brand name almost anything over the generic shurfine or shursavings stuff.

ive been tracking my monthly expenses in an excel spread sheet, and according to that, ive really only been spending about half of the three hundred dollars i make per month. but since it is only three hundred dollars, i feel like its a good idea to save as much of it as i can. so i can pay for the inevitable large purchases, like my airfare home and christmas gifts. i just about doubled my normal monthly spending last month alone with christmas shopping and other little things like treats for myself while out in santa fe. (movie! candy! coffee! greek food!) these little things really really add up.

but anyway. my point is that we've realized we really are living the simple life out here, and its a complete shift from everything we lived in college. here, a really fun night out can mean watching the elementary boys basketball game. a real treat means buying a starbucks frappucino from the supermarket.

and i feel like i appreciate everything even more for all the lack of everything we have. the basketball game is fun because its our own students we're watching, kids we genuinely care about. the frappucino is only really a treat if you share it with one of your housemates. just like we mentioned in our retreat friday evening, we are working together, we are living together, we are so closely interdependent. and thats a lot more evident out here than ever before. living our simple life, we are free to focus on what really matters to us.